Florida International, Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Texas-San Antonio, Charlotte and Old Dominion will all join to bring the roster to 14 teams. Charlotte doesn’t begin playing football until 2013 and Old Dominion is moving up to FBS from FCS. It is unclear, the website reports, when those two will begin competing as full-fledge Conference USA football members.

Mario Cristobal and Florida International currently plays in the Sun Belt Conference, but they are headed for Conference USA in 2013. (AP Photo)

This officially would nix the proposed C-USA-Mountain West Conference merger. The MWC will add Utah State and San Jose State in 2013, bringing its membership to 10 teams. The MWC and C-USA dashed their merger plan but have agreed to work together to share scheduling, television and marketing resources.

The Western Athletic Conference, meanwhile, will not only struggle to maintain relevance—but its very existence. Utah State and San Jose State are current WAC members, as are Louisiana Tech and Texas-San Antonio. Texas State, also in the WAC, is headed to the Sun Belt. That would leave the WAC, established in 1962 and once as large as 16 programs, with two programs in 2013—Idaho and New Mexico State.

“The Western Athletic Conference Board of Directors is well aware of the changing landscape in Division I athletics and has been in discussion about it for the last several weeks,” interim WAC commissioner Jeff Hurd said in a statement released Tuesday.

“Further, it continues to evaluate the impact upon the WAC and is closely engaged in evaluating its membership options. It will not speculate relative to those options, but it has confidence that the WAC will maintain its more than 50-year history as a preeminent Division I conference.”

Conference USA was forced into expansion when Houston, SMU, Central Florida and Memphis all rubber-stamped plans to leave for the Big East in 2013. Its new members represent a range of leagues—FIU and UNT from the Sun Belt; Louisiana Tech and UTSA from the WAC; Charlotte from the Atlantic 10 and ODU from the Colonial Athletic Association.

Georgia State, currently in the CAA, is joining the Sun Belt. The Sun Belt has scheduled an announcement for Wednesday afternoon.